Lost and Found
by StriderX
Summary: The night after The End, Guy shares something with Eep he never thought he share with anyone but Belt: his story. No tigers, no flying. Just him and Eep and how he lost his family. Rated T for sadness.


**A/N:** I love this film so much. I hope this little snippet of story does the characters justice. I apologize for any spelling errors.

**Disclaimer:**Don't own.

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**Lost and Found**

The night after The End was quiet and somber. While those alive were glad to have survived, they'd also lost much, and many. In the silence under the many suns of the night sky, mournful howls and whispered songs echoed through the air.

The Croods slept in the open now, choosing a soft glowing fire over the harsh black of cave walls. There were ten of them in the clearing: a giant dog-pile of limbs and fur and the warmth of love. Their whole family had survived, pets and all. They, unlike so many, were happy and snored loudly.

But two of that family—one born into it and one adopted—found it impossible to sleep for the overbearing sadness clinging to the air. They tossed and turned, mumbling roughly, until finally one stood and the other followed.

So now they sat together on a low outcropping of rock that overlooked their family. In the silence between them, they tried to remember that theirs really _was_ a happy ending.

Eep's knees were pulled close to her chest as her strong arms wrapped around her legs. She rested her chin on her knees and sighed.

"You okay?" Guy worried from beside her. She'd been unusually quiet the last few hours; the moment her parents fell asleep, the smile fell from her face.

She jumped a little, startled by his deep voice (it still surprised her…he was still so _new_). Honestly, she'd forgotten he was there. It bothered her sometimes, how quiet he was—like each step weighed less than a feather. She looked at him, taking him in. He really was the most intriguing person she'd ever met, and by far the most handsome. Absently, she wondered what his family must have looked like. Because surely he'd had one once, right?

"I've never been so close to it, ya' know?" when she spoke, the expression he shot her was nothing if not confused. "Death, I mean," her voice was rough and low, as if she feared what he'd think of the topic. "I—I've never gotten so close to losing one of them, before," she looked over to her family below as she spoke, and couldn't help the smirk when Sandy chewed on Douglas's ear in her sleep.

"Yeah," came Guy's unsure reply. Eep glanced at the normally talkative boy. With the low light of the fire darkening his features, she saw for the first time just how much weight he held inside. "It's been a while for me, too," he admitted quietly, soft eyes locking on his fingers as they busied in petting Belt's back.

Eep bit her lip. She'd never been one for tact, but then she'd never cared what anyone thought either…before Guy came along, anyway. "What happened to your family, Guy?"

He sighed, managing a little smile when Belt yawned in his snuggled sleep. Truthfully, Guy had never wanted to tell anyone what happened. But somehow, telling Eep felt…_right_. He looked out, gazing over the night valley. The low hum of a mourning animal scored his story well.

"I was just a kid," he started, something in him surprisingly cold and distant. He could feel Eep scooting closer; her shoulder pressed encouragingly against his. "My parents, older brother, and I were explorers—we searched for new things. Things to make life better, more fun," he chuckled a sad life at some memory he could hardly remember now.

Eep forced herself to grin a little, too.

"See, my parents were curious. They were reckless and sometimes foolish, but to this day I've never seen anyone live life like they did."

Eep smiled genuinely then. She realized that Guy was exactly like the parents he'd lost.

"One day, we were tracking a school of land-whales in a far-away swamp land. It'd been raining for days, and the big reptiles had started hunting us. We—my parents didn't notice it; the rain washed away all the tracks before we could tell anything was wrong."

So much of Eep wanted Guy to stop right then, right at that moment when his voice went rough and hard to hear. But it was too late. She needed to hear, and he _needed_ to tell her.

Taking a breath, he pushed forward. "Until one night, right as the sun set, the monsters attacked. We were unprepared, ambushed. My parents pushed my brother and I up and we ran," even as the story grew to its climax, so Guys words grew faster and faster, as if racing to get through it. "We ran so fast through those swamps that I remember thinking I was running _on _the water. But it was so dark. So dark,"

Gently, Eep placed a gentle hand on his arm. Shaking his head a little, he moved on. "The next thing I knew, I turned left, my family turned right, and I was all alone…not even the monsters followed me. There was no noise, no light, no sound at all, until…"

When he trailed off again, Eep could see his eyes shimmering with orange tears colored by the firelight. "There was a scream," he ground out, whispering. "I-I ran. I was just a kid, but somehow I thought that if I could just reach them…" tears fell then, staining his freckled cheeks.

Eep squeezed his arm. Guy sniffed.

"All three of them—and the monsters chasing them—had fallen into a tar pit. It was dark and black and no matter what I did, how hard they struggled, they—I couldn't get them out."

Eep cried as she saw his memory play out in her mind—only it was her family slowly drowning, leaving her alone in the dark with the shimmering black that murdered her life. "Guy," she lost her voice as soon as she found it. How could she say anything after that? She couldn't.

So she nestled in close to him and wrapped her arms around him. While his tears were few and silent, she could feel the trembles of long preserved memories bubbling to the surface. Slowly, he reached around, holding her, too.

For some time, neither moved, neither spoke. In the depth of night, they simply held each other amidst the menagerie of loving snores and whimpered cries. As Eep's head rested on his chest, Guy could feel the wet of her tears—her tears for him—trailing down his skin. He found himself stroking her hair, subconsciously consoling her even as she tried to do the same for him. He breathed in her scent, relishing her warmth and the way her hair caught the fire's glow. Suddenly, he took a breath.

"The last thing my parents told me was to never hide," Eep gazed up at him with wide, wet eyes. Guy smiled down at her. "But to live, to follow the light."

Now Eep smiled, too, if only a little.

Guy shifted so he was kneeling in front of her, and took both of her hands into his own. His eyes shined like the magic in the sky their first night away from the cave. "Eep, no matter what we've lost—or almost lost—I did what my parents told me. I followed the light, and it led me straight to you."

And as the mourning passed, and the night found peace at last, the two fell asleep in each other's arms, knowing they'd finally found the sun.

**End.**

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**A/N:** Thanks so much for reading!


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